BY MELINDA KUSEMACHIBI Preparations for the Miss Curvy Africa-Zimbabwe pageant set for September 30 are at advanced stage.
Miss Curvy Africa is aimed at priming a strong and independent woman who is comfortable in her own natural beauty that symbolises and carries norms and values of an African woman.
In an interview with Standard Style, Miss Curvy Africa founder Princess Mercy Mushaninga said they were focusing on pushing empowerment of the girl child.
“This year, we are pushing for women empowerment and our theme is Project Miss Curvy for Women Empowerment,” Mushaninga said.
“We are expecting our curvy finalists to be creative in terms of brand and being productive in their communities.”
She said it was not about the curves, but creativity that the models had in promoting Zimbabwean tourism.
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“We have almost finished our auditions. We have done auditions for Harare, Manicaland province, Masvingo, Bulawayo, and we are still taking from other provinces,” Mushaninga said.
“So far we have 40 models who have registered to be contestants for Miss curvy. We are going to do eliminations (reduce the models to 16) on July 30 at Mudziyashe where the girls will be camping for those coming outside Harare.
“Only 16 finalists will go into the Miss Curvy Africa-Zimbabwe boot camp. We have a lot of activities lined up for the curvy models. On August 21, we will have a Curvy Kitchen Traditional Dish Day where the models will cook their favorite traditional dishes.
“On August 27, it will be Curvy Culture Festival presentation, where we expect our models to showcase their culture through dancing, music, poetry, fashion.
“We also have the soccer Ambassadors Fun day, Soccer Match on September 4, where the models will play soccer with Mabhuza a soccer team that we have approached.
“On September 7, we will be giving back to the community though out project called Models Against Hunger in Africa that gives back to orphans in the community and we will be visiting chiefs since they represent the community.”
Mushaninga bemoaned lack of sponsorship as the biggest challenge that they are facing.
“Sponsorship is the biggest challenge that we are facing because we are looking for companies that support women empowerment. So we are calling for sponsors to come and support us because this is a project that supports tourism especially domestic tourism,” she said.
Six models will be crowned in different categories that include the Miss Curvy Africa-Zimbabwe Queens, Miss Curvy Africa-Zimbabwe Brand Ambassador, Miss Curvy Africa-Zimbabwe People’s Choice, Best in Fitness, Best in Culture and Best Traditional Dish.